To be honest, this is a subject that is close to my heart, and something that has really got to me in the last few months. The community as a whole HAS picked up more moaners, who seem to make it their place to constantly criticise others for pathetic, pedantic reasons. I'vew posted about this before, and infact, we had a sticky about it a while back, which seemed to calm people down somewhat.
I think the time has come to ask people to calm down again in this respect.
YES - some people ask annoying, frequently duplicated questions
BUT
It's even MORE annoying when you come on and post a reply to such questions just whinging about the question and not providing any sort of constructive input.
The bottom line is - IF YOU DONT WANT TO ANSWER THE QUESTION, DONT POST AND WHINGE ABOUT IT.
Everyone was new once, including myself. Yes, the FAQ is there, and YES, the search function is there, but it is human nature for people to look for the easiest way out of a problem. To some, reading the FAQs and doing searches may be that very thing, but to others, the tempatation to post is unbearable.
If you get a post asking a question which is answered in the FAQ, just post saying so. If you want to do a search and link to a few threads about it, then so be it. You can then tag on a friendly reminder to the end of the post to ask them to use the search function and the FAQ next time. This way, you've demonstrated the usefulness of one or the other in a direct way without making yourself seem like some grumpy git who cant be bothered to give people the time of day.
It makes for a better community all round.
Of course, persistantly annoying offenders (on both sides) WILL get warned by mods. We CAN suspend your accounts or even put all your posts on moderator review so they have to be checked before they are allowed. This would be annoying for all involved, and shoudn't really be necessary.
PLEASE - for gawd's sake... (and I say it again...!)
KEEP IT FRIENDLY!
I love this community, and have given a lot of my time to help upkeep it, as have all the other mods. We're not infallible, and many things will slip through. BUT - everyone helping to keep it frienddly in the first plae will make our lives easier, as well as stoping the other communities, and new people to this one, tarring us all with the same sticky, "can't be arsed to help" brush.
Please help to keep this community what it has been up until now - one of the friendliest on the web.
Cheers, thanks for listening, and you can go now
